The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of an unnamed, seed parent and an unnamed, pollen parent, both Vriesea fosteriana made by the inventor during 1996.
It was discovered by the inventor, Andrew Maloy, a citizen of New Zealand, in 1999 in a group of seedlings resulting from the 1996 crossing.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Kiwi Dusk’ was first performed in Auckland, New Zealand, in a commercial laboratory by tissue culture in 2002. ‘Kiwi Dusk’ has been reproduced by micro-propagation and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.